How do we exercise faith?
NOTE: This week is longer and will be broken up in 2 parts… courtesy of time to reflect at 30k feet and a long transatlantic flight! I hope you find this helpful…
HEBREWS 11.1, 6: What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see... So, you see, it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that there is a God and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (New Living Translation)
This week I want to ask the simple question: "How do we exercise faith?"
FIRST, WE MUST BE IN TOUCH WITH GOD'S PROMISES TO US. God's call always carries His promises. In Genesis 12.1ff, we see this very clearly. In the opening verse, God's call is clear.
The lord had said to Abram, "leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land i will show you."
The promises immediately follow in verses 2-4:
I will make you into a great nation and i will bless you; i will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you i will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." so abram left as the lord had told him.
We must have a sure awareness of God's call and therefore we must be in touch with God's promises. This is absolutely critical. For there lies a prophetic side to God's promises that make vision and ministry come alive when they are personally grasped and appropriated. There are many promises captured in the Scriptures. But what has God promised us; individually, and collectively as a community? What do we specifically believe Him for? God has given birth to our Church and called her to ministry and I believe He promises to fulfill the needs that His call creates.
SECOND, LIKE ANY 'LIVING" EXERCISE, FAITH MUST BE NURTURED AND ENCOURAGED. H. F. Bosworth once said, 'Most Christians feed their bodies three square meals each day but only feed their spirits one cold snack each week. Then they wonder why they are so weak in faith." I am convinced that faith needs to be fed by the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, prayer, and Christian fellowship. The Holy Spirit will make our hearts receptive to God's Word and make His Word clear and relevant to us. The Scriptures will bring us a growing understanding of God's promises and His surprising enterprises. Through prayer our hearts can cry out to the Lord of promise and be sweetened by His faithfulness. When we pray, God's faithfulness calls forth our faith and strengthens it to maintain expectancy until the day of fulfillment. And faith will grow infectiously as we gather with other believers.
THIRD, WE MUST LEARN THE VOCABULARY OF FAITH THAT CAN BE EXPRESSED IN TWO WORDS: “though” AND “yet”. Job was able to say, 'Though he slay me, yet will I hope in Him (Job 13.15). Can we learn to say, 'Though his may happen, yet will I hope in Him?" "Though my prayer seems unanswered, yet I will trust Him?” “Though I face huge disappointments, yet will I trust Him?” Faith is not anxious living between the “though” and the “yet.”
CLOSELY ASSOCIATED WITH THE VOCABULARY OF FAITH IS THE HABIT OF PRAISE. Once we have received God's promise, we begin taking Him at His word and begin praising Him. Our praise indicates the faith we embrace and express comes before sight. This is not a denial of reality. It is our expression of faith through the shadows which life often confronts us with.
FIFTH, OUR DECISIONS MUST BE MADE OUT OF THE PRIORITY OF GOD'S CALL AS WE TRUST IN HIS PROMISES AMIDST AN AWARENESS OF HIS PRESENCE. What God proclaims He will provide for. The challenge is not IF He will fulfill His promise — it is a matter of WHEN. It is God’s calendar, not His commitment that challenges our faith. 'All God's giants have been weak men who did great things for God because they reckoned on his being with them. They counted on God's faithfulness" (Hudson Taylor)
SIXTH, WE MUST LEARN TO MAINTAIN A LIFE STYLE OF FAITH THAT IS NOT HARASSED OR HURRIED BY THE TYRANNY OF THE URGENT BUT PACED BY OUR PERSEVERING AND PATIENT EXPECTATION OF GOD'S FAITHFULNESS. True faith is never alone. It is always accompanied with expectation. The person who believes the promises of God also expects to see them fulfilled. Where there is no expectation, there is no faith. As someone once observed: “Blessed are those who expect nothing, for they shall not be disappointed!”
Faith and expectation secure the Christian life from being continually plundered by fear, fad, or fancy. Yet, the challenge with our expectation is it frequently creates- with the best of intentions— timetables and vision tied to our own yearning, urgency, and/or planning… While each of these are catalyzed by our sincere faith, they may create disappointment when God doesn’t act in the manner we anticipated within the timetable we envisioned.
I think expectancy is rooted in simplicity. We simply (not simplistically) expect. This expectancy will lead us to surrender, live, love, serve, and lead in alignment with what we expect. Consider Abraham! God said that he would show him a land, therefore he could no longer stay home. God promised a son so Abraham and Sarah, therefore had to get “busy” at the ripe old age of 90! There was no timetable — just promises. But those promises defined their lives and established the context for exercising their faith.
Dear ones, the exercise of our faith is never merely invisible. It is the outward expression of an invisible reality. Therefore, it will be sacramentally present in everything we pray and everything we give thanks for, do, imagine, say, and esteem. It will be in alignment with the One we confess; the One whose return we anticipate, and the One who promises to be present with us in the valleys of shadows and the mountaintops of delight.
In light of this let me suggest a definition of “faith:”
Faith is the personal trust in God that
is truly satisfied with His Person,
fully embraces God’s promises,
exclusively relies on God’s power and
is completely assured of God’s presence & provision,
and wholly surrenders to God’s purpose.
If God intends our faith to be exercised, then we must ask, “Does God require anything from the faith we exercise?”
… to be continued!
